Friday 7 June - After picking up our hire car we head out of LA through the unbelievable grandeur that is Beverly Hills and jump on the Pacific Coast Highway (Hwy 101) towards Malibu. The freedom of having a car is great and driving on the wrong side of the road isn’t too difficult to adjust to. Unfortunately what the locals call ‘June Gloom’ is still hanging around so it’s rather grey but still pretty spectacular. We stopped in Santa Barbara for a picnic by the beach and a wander along the pier before continuing on towards Pismo Beach.
Pismo Beach
We finally got blue skies as we headed north up the coast and stopped at Pismo Beach for a wander in the sun to stretch our legs and a quick drink.
Morro Bay
Our final stop before reaching San Simeon for the night was Morro Bay which is known for Morro Rock, an ancient volcanic mound at the end of Morro Rock Beach. Dave spotted sea otters which was very exciting but we couldn’t get a good photo of them (see unidentifiable blobs in water below).
San Simeon
After a long day of driving we arrived to a beautiful sunset in San Simeon, dumped our bags at the motel and grabbed some dinner at the motel diner. Steph had her first clam chowder experience, served in a bread bowl, which Dave, not a seafood eater, was deeply offended by - it was delicious! We then took a quick stroll down onto the beach to watch the sunset before grabbing a bottle of wine and retiring to the room.
